I noticed him leaning up against the door jamb as I entered the kitchen. He was tall, wore a white t-shirt and Levis and had his left ear pierced. He told me it was his 29th birthday. After a guessing game of how old I was, I revealed that I was 13.

The latest edition of UNICEF's report on child poverty showed the United States ranks second out of 35 developed countries on the scale of what economists call "relative child poverty" with 23.1 percent of its children living in poverty. Only Romania ranked higher. It was another shameful reminder that, as economist Sheldon Danziger put it, "Among rich countries, the U.S. is exceptional. We are exceptional in our tolerance of poverty." For the Lynch family in Columbus, Ohio, profiled here, headlines like this aren't news. Their family is a portrait of deep poverty in America. In 2010 20.5 million Americans were living on less than half of the federal poverty level.